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HP buys Palm

HP is acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion. The Palm blog reported the deal by saying "In case you didn't hear, we just announced a merger with a little shop down the street called HP", while the formal announcement stated that the companies had entered into a definitive agreement for HP to purchase Palm at $5.70 per share.

Palm's mobile platform WebOS uses the Linux kernel and open source WebKit browser. Palm have made much of their commitment to the open web, and to WebOS based around HTML JavaScript and CSS as its user interface. However WebOS itself is proprietary to Palm. HP says it plans to "double down" on WebOS, but is not announcing any specific future plans at this time. HP currently produces a number of Windows Mobile based phone devices and has shown a Windows 7 based tablet it plans to release later in the year. The acquisition of Palm gives HP another option for operating systems on those devices.

The Palm acquisition includes Palm's 1,500 strong patent portfolio built up from 1996 with the release of the Palm Pilot, through the release of the Treo mobile phones and up to the current generation of Palm Pre and Pixi mobile internet devices.